Safeguards The Tlatelolco treaty: An update Dr Jose R. Martinez Cobo The persistent armaments race always has been one normative contributions to those efforts, have been in the characteristic determining international political reality. final analysis almost fruitless. The generations now However, humanity is now living in the shadow of a inhabiting the earth are powerless spectators of the threat unique in all its history: the threat of extinction largest and most sophisticated concentration of of the species. To prevent the catastrophe of a nuclear armaments that could ever be imagined, not only in the war is the greatest moral challenge that mankind has rich and highly industrialized countries but also in the ever had to confront; there is no time to lose — either economically weak and less developed parts of the world. we eliminate nuclear weapons or they destroy civilization The utilization of nuclear energy since the explosion as we know it. of the Hiroshima bomb in 1945 has changed the whole The spectre of nuclear war rises from the shadows of traditional focus of the disarmament question. Consider­ the international political scene. The mere possession of ing the global consequences of a nuclear confrontation, nuclear weapons could lead to aggressive designs, we can only conclude that the world has become a through error, through simple chance, or through the hostage of the superpowers and is bound to serve their criminal madness of elements of which history has never interests. And this is tragic and immoral because, even been entirely free. The world situation is deteriorating though States possessing nuclear weapons will be the day by day. Mistrust and rivalry between the Powers are ones who suffer the largest numbers of victims and the growing. There is no serious dialogue between East and most extensive material damage, no nation, great or West, or between North and South. The serious small, in any part of the globe, would come away inequalities between countries, short-sighted nationalistic unscathed. ambitions, the appetite for dominance and power — all It is distressing to witness the general agreement in these are seeds that could produce a nuclear confronta­ society that what has been achieved in nuclear dis­ tion at any time. armament is very slight, despite efforts invested in it through the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear The path towards disarmament Weapons (NPT) and bilateral agreements between nuclear It is true that during the last few decades disarmament superpowers. has come to be accepted and confirmed as an undisputed On the contrary, nuclear arsenals are growing from principle of international law and as an essential objective one day to the next and the process of horizontal pro­ of the international community organized as a legal liferation of nuclear weapons has accelerated dangerously. entity: This already was recognized in the Covenant of All peoples inhabiting the earth are dependent on one the League of Nations, and it is so conceived in the highly fragile policy of the two superpowers — deterrence Charter of the United Nations. It is also an undoubted through terror. But this policy could fail if one side or fact that the question of disarmament today constitutes the other thought it had acquired the capacity to strike the central and principal task of legions of jurists and a blow and absorb the damage caused by the other side's diplomats, and the main staff of innumerable inter­ response. national meetings and activities. However, when one examines dispassionately the work Nuclear-weapon-free zones: An effective route actually accomplished towards disarmament in the inter­ national and regional organizations, when one analyses One of the most practicable and effective paths the history of the countless conferences devoted to this towards nuclear disarmament and towards peace is no theme, when one studies closely the treaties and bilateral doubt the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones. agreements that have been concluded, and then confronts The creation of such zones not only imposes total nuclear all these with reality, one cannot escape a feeling of disarmament on the countries involved, it also has the discouragement and frustration. In actual fact, what has effect of reducing the areas on earth where a confronta­ been achieved is very little. tion with nuclear arms could conceivably take place. If Enormous legal and diplomatic efforts deployed in many such zones were established, then obviously this the matter of disarmament, and the large formal and would gradually reduce the area available for nuclear conflict by putting a geographical limitation on pro­ Dr Martinez Cobo is General Secretary of the Agency for the liferation, so that, in theory, a nuclear conflict could be Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (OPANAL). restricted to the territories of the nuclear powers. IAEA BULLETIN, VOL.26, No.3 25 Safeguards The possession of nuclear weapons entails, for States relevance to international security, which requires - as which have them, the constant risk of falling victim to a has been recognized in various resolutions of the United nuclear attack aimed at destroying their nuclear arsenals. Nations General Assembly — an efficient, realistic, and This means that their security is diminished rather than effective policy in matters of disarmament, especially increased. The creation of militarily de-nuclearized zones nuclear disarmament. thus enhances the security of the non-nuclear-weapon States and helps in particular to reduce the possibility of To date, 26 States have signed warlike nuclear confrontations. Accordingly, we have to accept that the creation of Countries of Latin America that have signed and these zones is not an end in itself, but one stage on the ratified the Treaty undertake to use all nuclear materials path towards disarmament which has to be complemented and installations that are within or come to be within by other steps. their jurisdiction exclusively for peaceful purposes. To that end, they undertake to prohibit or prevent in their The United Nations always has favoured the idea of respective territories the use, testing, manufacture, setting up these zones, recognizing their growing production and acquisition, by any means and in any importance as one of the few ways of making concrete form whatever, of nuclear weapons. progress towards nuclear disarmament. However, we must unfortunately conclude, if we take a realistic view The Treaty has been signed so far by 26 sovereign of the matter, that there is no glimmer of a possibility of Latin American States: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, establishing new nuclear-weapon-free zones in the the Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, immediate future, since none of the circumstances that Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, have impeded or obstructed their creation has actually Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, disappeared. Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela. More serious still is that the number of countries in all regions of the world aspiring to become nuclear Of these States, Brazil and Chile still are not Parties to powers soon is constantly on the increase. Thus, every­ the Treaty because they have not availed themselves of the thing compels us to think that for some years to come waiver provided for in Article 28. Argentina, which has the Latin American region will remain the only example signed the Treaty, has still not ratified it. However, high- of practical implementation of this visionary idea. level Argentine authorities repeatedly have expressed in various international bodies their support for the Treaty and their acceptance of its fundamental principles, so there is reason to hope that Argentina soon will ratify. Tlatelolco: regional and universal objectives Thus, the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (OPANAL) has at present 23 Member The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in States enjoying full rights. Latin America, known as the Tlatelolco Treaty, is the first — and up until now the only agreement - establishing Four independent Latin American States still have not a nuclear-weapon-free zone in an important, densely signed the Treaty of Tlatelolco: Cuba, Dominica, populated region of the earth. St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Two The Tlatelolco Treaty, which actually antedates the others, Belize and Guyana, have not been invited by the NPT, marked the culmination of a process undertaken as General Conference to accede to the Treaty because a an act of sovereign will by the governments of the Latin special regime is foreseen for those political entities American countries. It was opened for signature on whose territories are wholly or partially subject to 14 February 1967 and entered into force on litigation or claims by one or more Latin American States. 25 April 1969. Finally, St. Christopher and Nevis has acquired independence since the last meeting of the OPANAL The objectives of Tlatelolco are both regional and General Conference in May 1983. universal. On the one hand, it establishes a militarily de-nuclearized zone in Latin America as a step towards strengthening peace and security on that continent and Additional protocols avoiding a nuclear armaments race. In so doing, it Additional Protocol 1 to the Tlatelolco Treaty is an contributes to the economic and social development of instrument whereby